Fifth Collection of Seven Dailies – Milne, Victor Hugo

“He and the Forest, alone together-
The springs that come and the summers that go,
Autumn dew on bracken and heather,
The drip of the Forest beneath the snow….
All the things they have seen,
All the things they have heard:
An April sky swept clean and the song of a bird…
Oh, the charcoal-burner has tales to tell!
And he lives in the Forest and knows us well.”

– From The Charcoal-Burner in Now We Are Six by A. A. Milne

When he saw the carousel, he asked why they had stabbed the horses.

– From some of Patrick Lauser’s old notes

“Great grief is a divine and terrible radiance which transfigures the wretched. At that moment Fantine had again become beautiful. At certain instants she stopped and tenderly kissed the policeman’s coat. She would have softened a heart of granite; but you cannot soften a heart of wood.
“Come,” said Javert, “I have heard you. Haven’t you got through? March off at once! you have your six months! the Eternal Father in person could do nothing for you.”

– From Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

” “Pardon, Monsieur Mayor-”
This word, Monsieur Mayor, had a strange effect upon Fantine. She sprang to her feet at once like a spectre rising from the ground, pushed back the soldiers with her arms, walked straight to Monsieur Madeleine before they could stop her, and gazing at him fixedly, with a wild look, she exclaimed:
“Ah! it is you then who are Monsieur Mayor!”
Then she burst out laughing and spit in his face.
Monsieur Madeleine wiped his face and said:
“Inspector Javert. set this woman at liberty.”

– From Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

To insult oneself is not the opposite of boasting, any more than insulting someone else is the opposite of flattering them.